A second Minnesota man has now accused the porn copyright trolling firm Prenda Law of using his identity without his knowledge or permission. The revelation comes in a Sunday article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Allan Mooney has been listed in business filings as the manager of MCGIP LLC, a porn trolling shell company with ties to Prenda's John Steele and Paul Hansmeier, but Mooney now says he had nothing to do with the firm.

Mooney's denial comes at an awkward time. Hansmeier, Steele, and other key figures in the Prenda controversy have been ordered to report to a Los Angeles courtroom this afternoon to answer allegations that they stole the identity of a different Minnesota man, Alan Cooper. That hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:30pm Pacific time in the courtroom of Judge Otis Wright. Morgan Pietz, the defense attorney who has emerged as Prenda's leading foe, notified Judge Wright of the Star Tribune article in a Sunday court filing.

Mooney told the paper that he had "introduced his friend Paul Hansmeier to some contacts in the porn industry." But he said he didn't know he was listed as the "sole organizer" of MCGIP, a firm that has sued numerous John Doe defendants for pornographic copyright infringement. He also said he didn't know anything about Guava LLC, a trolling firm that listed "Alan Moay"—presumably a garbling of Mooney's name—as its representative.

"That would be news to me," Mooney told the Star Tribune. "I’m not involved in any of that type of stuff."

Ars Technica first reported on MCGIP in April 2011. At that time, it was represented by John Steele. A 2010 filing with the Minnesota Secretary of State listed an Allan Mooney as the manager of MCGIP. The filing indicated that MCGIP was located in Suite 900 in Minneapolis's IDS tower, the same address as Hansmeier's Alpha Law Firm.

In a deposition conducted last month, Pietz asked Hansmeier about Mooney, MCGIP, and Guava. Hansmeier was characteristically evasive, finally admitting that he knew a man named Allan Mooney but claiming to know little about MCGIP—despite his "belief" that he actually organized the company (he would have to "check his records" to be sure). Hansmeier also went to great lengths to avoid saying whether "Allan Moay" might be a misspelling of Mooney's name.

Pressed by the Star Tribune, Hansmeier offered more detail. He "sent the Star Tribune notarized affidavits in which Mooney declares that he’s 'a principal officer' of Guava and that his 'standard practice' is to decline comment about the company if strangers call." The Star Tribune was not able to contact Mooney to verify Hansmeier's claim.

Update: Thanks to sophisticatedjanedoe, who pointed out that the affidavits Hansmeier sent to the Star Tribune is likely the same one that appears on page 18 of Morgan Pietz's March 4 filing. The affidavit is dated February 15, 2013:

Promoted Comments

This is the 2nd article I've seen today on Ars with prison-rape cheerleading in the comments.

Rape is not a punishment for criminals. It should not be an 'expected' or 'deserved' part of a prison sentence, and it is not an inevitable fact of prison life. In my opinion, jokes like this indicate a belief that rape is not universally deplorable, but has acceptable uses and that a certain category of person should not be protected from it.

Timothy B. Lee
Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times. Emailtimothy.lee@arstechnica.com//Twitter@binarybits

And deep down the rabbit's hole we go. Curiouser and curiouser. If you are gonna start making up names for your CEOs at least use someone you are not associated or connected with.

Or hell, find someone willing to serve in the role. While I understand it might be difficult to find someone who would want to be associated with this mess, people do stranger things for money. I've known plenty of people who stood in as agents for all sorts of deals - including very contentious real estate purchases - for a very reasonable amount of money.

How is this even possible? Every time I think that Prenda has maximized my ability to be in disbelief, they double down!

I can't wait for this afternoon's hearing. Unfortunately, my expectation is that most of those ordered to appear will skip it, so I don't think we're going to learn much more. But, the aftermath of Judge Wright's fury should be fun to watch.

A lot of people here are assuming Prenda used Mooney's name without permission. However, Hansmeier, who has been notoriously reluctant to provide any information at all, is offering notarized affidavits of Mooney declaring himself an officer.

I certainly am not going to take that at face value, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mooney was involved and thought he might be able to take the easy way out by claiming identity theft.

Mooney told the paper that he had "introduced his friend Paul Hansmeier to some contacts in the porn industry." But he said he didn't know he was listed as the "sole organizer" of MCGIP.

Does Occam's Razor apply to his account? A more typical story would be one of mutual greed, where Hansmeier got his buddy's approval to use his name as a figurehead in exchange for a cut of the expected ill-gotten gains, but now the ship is listing badly and will never make landfall and like every self-interested rat he now wants off the boat....

Holy crap.... what's next? Are we going to find out that the porn that they bought the rights to is actually child porn or something?

I just don't know how they can keep topping themselves.

On a more serious note, though... I desperately hope that they don't just get a slap on the wrist and a fine for this shit. As far as I'm concerned, they have engaged in so many deceitful actions that they should be disbarred for life, at the very least, fined/sanctioned heavily, and possibly serve some jail time.

I would be happy with the first two, though, as it would severely limit their ability to ever engage in this kind of assclownery ever again.

This is the 2nd article I've seen today on Ars with prison-rape cheerleading in the comments.

Rape is not a punishment for criminals. It should not be an 'expected' or 'deserved' part of a prison sentence, and it is not an inevitable fact of prison life. In my opinion, jokes like this indicate a belief that rape is not universally deplorable, but has acceptable uses and that a certain category of person should not be protected from it.

Mooney told the paper that he had "introduced his friend Paul Hansmeier to some contacts in the porn industry." But he said he didn't know he was listed as the "sole organizer" of MCGIP.

Does Occam's Razor apply to his account? A more typical story would be one of mutual greed, where Hansmeier got his buddy's approval to use his name as a figurehead in exchange for a cut of the expected ill-gotten gains, but now the ship is listing badly and will never make landfall and like every self-interested rat he now wants off the boat....

Both scenarios are possible of innocent victim or tangential person trying to jump ship. With Prenda, I could easily believe Mooney's story of being an innocent victim. I do not which is actually true but I wonder want surprises are still out there with Prenda. Something tells me that next one will really be whopper and totally unexpected.

... A more typical story would be one of mutual greed, where Hansmeier got his buddy's approval to use his name as a figurehead in exchange for a cut of the expected ill-gotten gains, but now the ship is listing badly and will never make landfall and like every self-interested rat he now wants off the boat....

Ill-gotten booty?

Seems like, last night on the news, I also heard of lots of lawsuits against companies demanding ransom to remove posted (and otherwise publicly available) mug shots.

But then, I saw that other ad, "They can't post anything that isn't true." "Where did you hear that?" "The internet."

Something tells me that next one will really be whopper and totally unexpected.

Since this is already such a soap opera, I'm half expecting to find out that John Steele is actually.....Joanna Steele, who had a sex change in the 80's so she could practice law again after being disbarred for sleeping with a judge - who was also her brother!

I certainly am not going to take that at face value, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mooney was involved and thought he might be able to take the easy way out by claiming identity theft.

Very good point. If I had marginal involvement in a scheme like this, I would definitely be looking for the eject button, and considering that they seemed to be okay using the identities of other people, that seems like a very good excuse to use too.

The hearing promises to either be very interesting, or a complete washout, with none of the people attending. Was there an actual ruling on the Prenda motion? Popehat made an extremely good point in his blog about how their argument that there isn't any standing for them to be subject to a demand to appear before a judge in California negates their own prior arguments about being able to sue people in California. At this point, they're in full panic mode, actually arguing against their own ability to sue people in other states.